Officials say first responders are better equipped to communicate with one another in a disaster than they were three years ago during the Station fire.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 17, 2006

BY AMANDA MILKOVITS
Journal Staff Writer

As the hurricane roared into Rhode Island, high winds ripped down power lines, knocked out radio communications and left rescue workers with no way to talk to each other.

They couldn't call for help. They didn't know whether anyone else needed help. The only people they could talk to were the officers or firefighters alongside them.

That was during Hurricane Bob, and Narragansett police Capt. F. Dean Hoxsie, who was a sergeant at the time, remembers losing radio contact as he and a partner patrolled storm-washed Boston Neck Road. They were out there for hours before talking to another officer -- when a state trooper happened to come down the road.

That was 15 years ago.

In some ways, not much has changed.

There's a spider web of communications systems throughout the state for public safety and government officials. The majority of police and fire departments are on systems that use various radio frequencies, which are incompatible with other departments, and can lose a signal once rescuers are out of their municipalities or even inside buildings. To call other departments, many rely on cell phones and walkie-talkie-like Nextel phones, which are useless if cell towers are knocked down.

Only emergency workers in South County, one of the areas at greatest risk during a hurricane, have an interoperable radio system that allows those departments to communicate directly with any department in the state -- although the reach of that system is growing.

In other ways, much has changed. The state has a variety of communications weapons at its disposal if a hurricane strikes this season, including the interoperable 800 MHz radio system, which officials say corrects the communications problems exposed during the Station nightclub fire, the new state Emergency Operations Center that will allow state officials to oversee disaster response around the state, laptop computers so local emergency management directors are connected by Internet to the state center, and, as a last line of defense, amateur radio operators to relay messages for state and local officials.

THE STATION FIRE in February 2003 in West Warwick exposed the serious communications problems that faced first responders in Rhode Island.

The swarm of police and firefighters who responded from around the state couldn't talk to each other -- or even check in with their own municipalities -- because their radios were incompatible and their Nextel coverage was terrible.

Emergency personnel around the country have faced similar problems in the frantic hours following a disaster -- the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina last year.

While many departments in the state still have systems that were faulted after the Station disaster, Narragansett Police Chief J. David Smith and Hoxsie have introduced a system that they say solves many of the communications problems in Rhode Island -- and would prove invaluable during a disaster.

Still in the early stages, the 800 MHz interoperable communications system has won over first responders using it in the South County towns, as well as other agencies that have tried it.

An interoperable system allows users from different agencies to communicate across the same frequencies. This Motorola system puts all of its users onto the same frequencies, but has enough bandwidth to allow "talk groups" so those using the system are not talking over each other. For instance, one group could be set up for first responders, another for chiefs and another for other top stateleaders managing a crisis.

The system was first used in mid-March after three University of Rhode Island students disappeared in a rowboat. Throughout the grim search, the rescuers from various agencies could talk to each other directly and remain focused on looking for the students, Smith said, instead of struggling with cell phones or relaying messages through dispatchers.

The system has several backups. Every antenna site has its own battery power and generator, which are monitored electronically by the main Motorola center in Illinois. The Motorola staff can fix glitches remotely or call in local service providers, Smith said.

Nearly half of the antennas are on structures, instead of towers, which are more likely to collapse in high winds. The antennas have also been erected in fairly close proximity, so if one goes out, the others should be able to provide enough coverage, Smith said.

If all of the antennas fail, there still would be some coverage. The radios themselves, depending on the terrain, have the ability to pick up a signal from one to two miles away, Hoxsie said.

About half to two-thirds of the state has radio coverage now, from Westerly to most of Aquidneck Island and up to southern Pawtucket. By late summer, Hoxsie said, coverage will extend up through Scituate and into the Attleboros. By next hurricane season, nearly the entire state will have this radio coverage, he said. That means a cry for help from Westerly will be heard everywhere there's a radio signal.

But there is more coverage than there are radios.

Westerly, Narragansett and Jamestown police officers and firefighters each have radio or mobile systems. Several radios have also been distributed to departments in other South County towns, to top state police officials, and to state Emergency Management Executive Director Robert J. Warren.

By September, dispatch centers in Washington County and on Block Island will have radios, as will Tiverton, Little Compton, Cranston and the communities on Aquidneck Island. The Coast Guard stations at Castle Hill, in Newport, and Point Judith, in Narragansett, are borrowing radios from the Narragansett police. The governor will have his own.

But federal money has dried up. The state requested $20 million to $32 million more in homeland security money to complete the project and provide radios for all departments, but didn't get the money.

"How can you put a cost on the value of interoperability when everybody is frustrated by the lack of an ability to communicate?" Smith said. "Especially if it's a hurricane."

WHILE THE interoperable system is meant to help first responders communicate, the Emergency Operations Center at the state Emergency Management Agency is designed to allow state officials to gauge statewide response.

Inside the new center at the state EMA headquarters in Cranston, top emergency managers from various state agencies will use computers to get reports immediately from local directors around the state -- from news of flooding and blocked roads to calls for assistance -- through an Internet-based system known as the WEB-EOC. The system also includes information on shelters: which ones are open, their capacity, whether they can accommodate people with special needs.

The local emergency directors have laptops, which were distributed by the state EMA at the end of May, to connect them with the state operations center and other local directors.

This system is, of course, as good as the Internet connection and the power source. The state EMA has generators to keep the power running. Local directors will be faced with the same problems. The local and state directors will also rely on a limited radio system to communicate.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, the state and local emergency officials will turn to amateur-radio operators for communications.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service has formal agreements to work with FEMA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And now, for the first time, amateur-radio operators are included in Rhode Island's disaster plans.

They can set up their own equipment and run communications for government and public-safety officials, Red Cross shelters and even relay messages for civilians affected by the disaster, as they did for victims of Hurricane Katrina. They bring their own antennas, or can rig up temporary ones, and send messages by voice, document file and Morse Code.

A half-century ago, the amateur operators saved lives when they relayed messages to Woonsocket city officials about the collapse of dams upstream in Massachusetts. People were safely evacuated just before a flood washed into the city, said Robert Beaudet, section manager for the Rhode Island American Radio Relay League.

And after the 1938 hurricane devastated Rhode Island, amateur operators relayed calls for help to the outside world.

When a hurricane strikes again, they'll be ready, Beaudet said.

"The basic things are what works," said Beaudet. "When a boat motor fails, guess what works? An oar."

amilkovi@projo.com / (401) 277-7213